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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Boston Market Lunchtime

Today a couple friends and I went out for lunch at Boston Market.

I've actually never tried it before, and I was looking forward to trying their rotisserie chicken. (We were originally headed for Ruby Tuesday's, but due to my curiosity for this chicken joint I basically stopped the car, for better or for worse =).

My friends wanted to try the ribs, and I the chicken. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted the ribs as well. So we ordered a family meal for 3 (even though there were 4 of us) with ribs and chicken. The meal comes with three sides and portions of corn bread.

I was amused to see bottles of Sriracha sauce lying around the counter. Guess they're really getting culturally diverse now with the condiments.

The BBQ ribs were pretty good - really tender and well marinated. It was fall-off-the-ribs too, and the meat doesn't get sickening like some other brands. The chicken, not so much a hit, but that's perhaps I'm a bit biased (negatively) towards chicken. My friend says it tastes better with gravy.

Our side dishes consisted of mashed potatoes, loaded potatoes, creamy spinach, steamed veggies and some stuffing. My favorite was the stuffing, because it tasted like a salty version of bread budding, except with a healthy dose of rosemary and small bits of carrots and celery.

The stuffing was a hit and miss with my friends - they seemed to either like it or hate it (one was okay with it). The steamed veggies were a bit too tough, and the creamy spinach was leaning towards the overly-cheesy side. The mashed potatoes were right on, probably the best amongst the sides. Actually they were quite nice because they let us split one bowl of sides, so technically you could sample 6 sides (in smaller bowls).

The best part of this experience was the service. They were expedient and helpful, delivering our dishes to our table, even though we could have carried it ourselves. They seemed to really care about serving their customers, something not usually seen in the city. The servers also seemed to know everyone in the restaurant.

The loaded mashed potatoes were pretty tasty, with bits of bacon and cheddar cheese drizzled over it. This was a bit heavy at the end when none of us could touch anything anymore.

In the end we wiped clean the ribs. We probably should have ordered more ribs because there weren't that much to begin with in the first place. The chicken we had trouble finishing, because only one of us liked the texture, and she was already stuffed.

The tab came to about $38, and that's for 4 people, mind you. I was thinking at the end whether we should have gone to Ruby's instead, but given how this was a pretty decent American fare and a good time with friends, I happily settled with it.